


Fuyo No Haru

by Voglioungufo



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt, F/F, Falling In Love, Hokage Hatake Kakashi, Hurt/Comfort, Naruto and Sasuke die in Valley of the End, Post-Canon, Post-Fourth Shinobi War, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:14:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26970469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Voglioungufo/pseuds/Voglioungufo
Summary: What if Naruto and Sasuke died in the Valley of the End?"Please, Sakura," Naruto continued. “Promise me that you will live and that you will protect the Village for us too. Promise me that you will help Kakashi do the Hokage, that you will not stop smiling and that you will stay strong. Promise me you'll take care of everyone. That you will take care of Hinata "But who will take care of Sakura?"Don't die, don't die" Sakura pleaded. "Do not die""... Now we go on and maybe winter will return, but now it's spring for me"
Relationships: Haruno Sakura & Hatake Kakashi, Haruno Sakura & Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura/Hyuuga Hinata, Past Hyuuga Hinata / Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 8
Kudos: 43





	1. Winter

**Author's Note:**

> This is originally a one-shot I wrote in Italian many years ago. It is one of my favorite ff, so I decided to translate it into English. To help me work I have divided it into short chapters.  
> I hope you like it. "The death of main character" in the tah is about Naruto and Sasuke, in this AU they died during their last fight.  
> Hope you like it

That was the coldest winter in decades. The snow had caught them unprepared while they were still trying to piece together the pieces left by the war. The cold bit the cheeks, reddened the fingertips, condensed the breaths and burned the eyes. The sun was swallowed too early by the horizon and in the morning a curtain of icy fog floated in the air, so that the world seemed to alternate between an eternal night and a blank white book. Frost froze objects and a thin sheet of ice slid across the road.

Hinata had red ears, nose and cheekbones; her livid lips stood out against the milky pallor of her face. In the clear eyes it seemed that the cold had frozen tears. It was one of the many pasts, animated mannequins, swallowed up in their coats, with the low gaze and the quick steps of those who want to arrive soon in a warm place.

Hinata no.

Hinata walked slowly, her long black hair trapped in the red scarf. She let the cold devour every bit of her and freeze the blood in her heart. Each beat felt heavier.

She was pitiful.

She was returning from yet another sickening clan meeting inside the Hokage building. Only a few months had passed since the war against Madara and Kaguya, yet Konoha already needed to regroup and recompose. This is what happens when you are a ninja: you never have enough time to mourn the dead.

Hinata was not wearing gloves at that moment and was struggling to feel her fingers, she felt herself inside a glass hood. She couldn't help but think that Neji-nii should be next to her at that moment, he would know what to do.

By now she was trying to participate assiduously in the political affairs of the clan and the village as the future heir of the Hyuuga, but she was still too young and inexperienced to be able to move in that environment that confused her so much. Most of the assembly did not take her into consideration, still considering her a child too weak to understand political matters and looked at her with disapproval, convinced that Neji should be in her place. He certainly would not have let anyone put his feet on his head and would have resolved the conflicts with the Cadet House with ease and firmness. He was born to lead the Hyuugas. Others, the more conservative, were happy with his passing and yearned for the young girl to be used as a puppet to maneuver around their shady plans.

Hinata didn't want this, she wanted to be stronger to resist all those pressures, make her voice heard and finally do the right thing.

The truth is that she didn't feel strong at all, that she just felt like a little girl whose only light they had taken away.

Neji-nii was dead.

Naruto-kun was dead.

And she was left _alone_.

She felt something hot roll down her cheek, the cold air immediately crystallized the tear preventing it from falling down.

Winter was merciless, it didn't allow anyone to be weak.

Winter didn't even allow her to cry.

*

Punch, lunge, side kick. Defense position.

Yet.

Training was the only thing that could distract Hinata. For years she had done just that, thinking that battle ability was enough to make her strong, forgetting that what was weakest was her spirit. Her was a cracked soul, with long, narrow, supple cracks that reached into the center of her heart. They left her exposed, allowing the cold winter gusts to make her shiver.

She stopped for a second, out of breath and a trickle of sweat running down her neck making her shiver. Her heavy breath manifested itself in pale clouds and her heart was beating furiously with the effort. Her muscles were all numb.

Hinata had never thought that a broken heart could come to break everything in her.

She was letting others break decisions she didn't want to make, because for everyone she was still just a pathetic child.

Angrily Hinata moved into the next figure, hurling all despair at imaginary enemies, who had the same texture as those pale snowflakes.

Neji would surely show her the right path, Naruto would surely support her. Instead she had to do everything alone, with her own strength, she who felt weak like never before.

The day before and the day after. Everything had changed overnight and she did not understand how for the others everything had been limited to a lunar passage. As if only the moon had changed in that time frame and not all of his life. The day she realized that tomorrow still awaited her.

But without them.

The day before and the day after; she was giving everything, even too much, and yet it seemed that nothing at that moment was enough. Hinata was crumbling slowly, slowly, piece by piece.

Life had never been this bastard.

Winter had never been so cold.


	2. Drea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A very short chapter

_"Hey, Hinata-chan!"_

_The girl jumped, losing her balance in the jump and crashing to the ground. Clumsiness embarrassed her and she felt her cheeks light up simultaneously. Naruto smiled at her, open and sincere without any shadow of mockery. He held out his hand with blue eyes mirroring the sky behind him._

_"You should take a break every now and then, don't you think, 'bayo?" Naruto babbled lightly as she shyly accepted his hand to pull herself up. It was a heartbeat to have him so close all the time, and refraining from running away or hugging him was always impossible. Naruto was a small pocket ray of sunshine._

_She shook her head briefly but firmly._

_"I want to reach the level of Neji-nii"_

_He burst out laughing. "But you are already well advanced!" he assured her, stroking her head as if she were a kitten._

_The feel of the boy's fingers made her blush, if possible, even more. It was such a warm touch._

_"Hey, Hinata-chan!" he called her again as the light intensified as if someone had increased the brightness of the sun. Everything seemed to be turning into a faded old photograph._ _"We will fight together, dattebayo!"_

Hinata opened her eyes with that last joyful exclamation in her ears. Outside, dawn was rising in the white mist of the _winter_ morning _._

*

It hurts. It hurts. It hurts.

So bad.

Yet she did not stop for a moment, as the cold congested her fingers and her muscles screamed in pain at every slightest effort, her vision was blurred and lacking. The head was spinning, the whole world was spinning.

But she wouldn't stop. She had no intention of stopping. She couldn't afford to be weak.

She missed a step and crashed to the ground in the snow, got her clothes wet as her breath ran out of her teeth. She didn't seem to have enough air. It hurts. Every inch of her body hurt. She was breathing as if it was impossible to stop despite her best efforts.

She wanted to curl up there on the ground waiting for a courage that she did not yet have, a courage capable of making her abandon a thousand memories and all her regrets. She hadn't been strong enough. She was never strong enough to make it.

Fall and not see his hand ready to grab her.

Life had never been so empty. Cold. Detached. Merciless. Without a summer that could melt the snows and warm her poor heart.

"Hey, Hinata-chan!"

The world seemed to crystallize, she raised her face and saw a familiar face approach her and two clear eyes scrutinizing her apprehensively.

Greens.

 _Not blue_ , she thought regretfully before the chill completely surprised her.


	3. Meet you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally Sakura!

When Hinata awoke, she found herself in an unknown place with a pink ceiling. She lay on a soft bed, wrapped in soft wool blankets and felt pains in every muscle. She tried to sit up to look at the room she was in. It was neat, simple and functional. The pink color in there was king.

She threw the blankets aside, noting that she was also wearing a white pajama not her own that fit tightly against her chest; with difficulty she sat up, finding near the bed some woolen bunny slippers. They were so cute that she smiled and slipped her feet into them.

It wasn't hard to imagine whose pink room it was, but it was hard for her to believe it, so she started poking around.

The light wood desk was almost completely empty, above there were only a pen holder with a notepad and an ANBU mask abandoned absently. On the small bookcase all the medical books had been stacked neatly on the shelves, the ninja weapons were all cleaned and carefully placed in a basket and on the shelves there were many frames with photographs.

Most represented Sakura - it was now obvious that the room was hers - as a child with Ino, the newer ones showed her with Kakashi or Sai. Her heart squeezed when she noticed that of Team 7. It was placed in the center, in the most visible point, as the most beautiful and precious of treasures.

Hinata wondered how much pain Sakura must have felt when she realized she had lost her teammates, her family.

Sakura in the photo was smiling between the two boys who were glaring at each other, Naruto had his smile folded into a grimace and his arms crossed over his chest. A very painful nostalgia hit her chest.

“You finally woke up”.

The shrill voice made her jump and, feeling like a thief caught in the act, Hinata moved away from the shelf placing a hand clenched in a fist on her chest. Sakura watched her from the door holding a tray with two steaming ceramic cups. She wore casual clothes, a green boat-neck sweater, loose-fitting gray canvas pants, and her pink hair tucked into two very short pigtails. She had a soft smile on her lips.

Hinata stared at her not knowing what to say as Sakura walked over and placed the tray on the desk next to the mask. Hinata had never talked much to her, from a certain point of view she had always put her in awe: she was so aggressive and noisy and confident that it inevitably made her feel out of place.

"I made you some green tea" Sakura informed her, treading the obvious, her lively voice was clear and devoid of shyness. She seemed totally at ease.

Hinata stared at the cups not having the courage to look Sakura in the face.

"What happened?" she asked in her shy voice. She didn't remember much of how she had passed out, other than the bitter, unbearable cold.

Sakura's smile trembled for a moment. “You pushed your body beyond its limits,” she explained as she fiddled with the ANBU mask tapes. “Luckily I found you before the situation got critical. I took you to my house, I hope it's not a problem ”.

Hinata shook her head as she reached out to grab her cup. It was hot and the pottery had been colored lilac, Sakura's was pink. She didn't know why but it made her tender.

She felt words on the tip of her tongue and wanted to say them, but they seemed indelicate and she was too ashamed to give voice to her thoughts, so she took a small sip, burning her lips.

“You shouldn't train that hard. Not in this period, or at least go to the indoor training gyms, ”Sakura kept talking.

Sakura had not yet looked into her eyes, preferring to let her gaze slide across the room, at that moment she too seemed uncomfortable.

"You miss them?" Hinata let it slip and immediately called herself stupid.

Sakura's gaze was veiled with melancholy and the smile became smaller, more nostalgic.

"More than oxygen" she admitted shamelessly, without fear of exposing herself too much.

She squeezed the pottery hard even though it had to be hot, she seemed to have been captured by distant memories.

"You were training for him, weren't you?" Sakura realized at one point in a bitter voice. "For Naruto".

That name had the effect of a punch on the stomach and immediately felt breathless. Hinata did not rush to deny the obvious, she preferred silence to be a more than enough answer.

Sakura next to her sighed, her breath broken, as if she was holding back from crying.

"You're strong, Hinata-chan" her voice, however, was clear and vibrant, she gently stroked a lock of black hair. "You are strong," he repeated.

*

In the days that followed Hinata found herself more and more often with Sakura, she could not say if by mistake or because inevitably her steps led her to her, following an invisible path.

Whenever they met on the street Sakura always showed kindness towards her, smiling at her and asking her if she would like to accompany her somewhere. At first she always declined, too shy, but then she began to agree.

She had never had a friend, despite being the daughter of the Hyuugas, her embarrassment always prevented her from forming a bond with some other girl of her age, especially when they were all vividly infatuated with Sasuke Uchiha. Sakura was among them and therefore Hinata had never found a point of contact to meet her, not even once they had become ninja. She felt that there was a sort of chasm between them, an insuperable gap.

Absently, without even realizing it, she observed Sakura. Unlike her, it did not seem that the cold winter had paralyzed her heart and organs, on the contrary she resisted the bursts of cold air without bending her head and constantly moving. Sakura was an ANBU, helping Kakashi-sama with his Hokage duties and spending her free time from hospital missions helping Tsunade-hime, or trotting around wrapped in a red coat with a basket full of flowers. She always went to the cemetery. Sakura always had someone to greet, to smile at.

_“Hi, Hinata-chan! I'm going to Ino to buy some flowers, will you come with me? "_

_“Hi, Hinata! If you are going to the hospital, how about you accompany me? "_

_“Hey, Hinata-chan! Do you want to get something hot? It's freezing! "_

From a certain point of view Sakura reminded her a lot of Naruto, so full of life, but she had a nostalgia in her eyes, a regret stuck in the corner of her lashes that made her smiles less bright than Uzumaki's. She was a small pale sun trying to filter through the clouds. Sakura wasn't as hot as summer, it was as warm as ... she didn't know.

Despite everything, her presence was comforting and made her feel less alone. From time to time Sakura would talk to her about Naruto and Sasuke, when they were still twelve year olds babbling at them and she was always trying to keep up with them. It was painful, the first few times she said her name Hinata literally felt her breath slip from her lips, but it was also a fresh balm, a slightly bitter medicine that made her feel good.

Sakura always spoke of them with so much affection and transport that it really seemed to her to see those two little ninjas, to be able to see him again. Remembering Naruto was better than forgetting him, as everyone did in his presence, was less painful.

So it was that Sakura's presence became a necessary moment in her day, a short interlude, a break away from the winter that froze the tears outside.


	4. Death's memory

"You've been spending a lot of time with Hinata lately."

Kakashi's reassuring voice distracted her and she stopped sorting the papers in the archive, while the sweet features of her new friend were outlined before her eyes. A spontaneous smile came to Sakura's lips.

"I like being with her," she replied sincerely, simply.

Kakashi on the desk was mechanically signing a stack of forms, without even reading them, eager to finish as soon as possible. He stopped for a moment and the ink smeared on the paper, he stared at that tiny speck with bitterness.

"Sakura" he called worried.

He did not immediately continue struggling to choose the right words; he had always loved the little girl with pink hair, in a certain sense he had immediately associated her with Rin and for this reason he had always felt an instinctive sense of protection towards her.

A hand on his shoulder distracted him from his thoughts. The kunoichi had momentarily abandoned her job to join him and was now scrutinizing him with curious green eyes. Once they had been brighter, then death and war had risked extinguishing all that was beautiful. Kakashi regretted it every time he met them, he hadn't been able to protect her as he should have.

"You don't have to do it all by yourself" Kakashi continued at the end. "You don't have to do it."

He saw those eyes blur, as if his words had taken her with her mind to another place, to a distant memory.

_The valley was completely destroyed, full of rubble and debris, unrecognizable. Naruto and Sasuke were two tiny points and her heart raced with fear. Sakura released Kakashi's arm to join them, both of them pouring into a pool of blood._

_"Sakura!" Naruto screamed faintly as she landed next to them. Immediately, noticing their condition, the wounds, the blood and the severed arms, she realized that she was too late and tears began to sting the corners of her eyes. She did not allow herself to cry and concentrated the chakra in her hands determined to heal them, they were so bad that she did not know where to start. Her fingers trembled with the panic she tried to stem. God, their chakra was so low, unnoticeable. It was a miracle that they could just breathe._

_"Sakura ... it's useless," Naruto said trying to keep his voice controlled._

_She didn't listen to him, trying to stem the blood loss. God, there was so much blood. They had lost too much blood and there was only that smell in the air._

_Smell of death._

_"Sakura ..." that was Sasuke's hardest voice._

_"Now shut up" she annoyed him with her voice trembling, she couldn't, she couldn't curse it. "I have to concentrate."_

_God, she couldn't. They would be dead. Dead. Dead. She couldn't._

_"I'm sorry," he ignored her, his voice soft as if he didn't have enough breath._

_"Sorry ... for what?" Sakura felt the tears struggle to get out._

_Damn, they were dying, she could hear their beats go down and she couldn't do anything. She couldn't._

Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid and weak Sakura!

_"For all. And to be unable to do anything "_

_Silence._

_By now the tears had taken over the girl's face, her vision was totally blurred. And there was so much blood, oh god they were dying for real._

_"That's not true," she contradicted him in the plaintive voice of a whimpering child. "That's not true." Sakura repeated as if she were saying it to death himself._

_She grabs them getting her fingers dirty with blood, hers was a tug-of-war with death and she wasn't sure she could win. But they couldn't, they couldn't abandon her._

_"Sakura… transplant my renegan to Kakashi," Sasuke continued._

_"The Biju will help you finish the Tsukiyomi" Naruto concluded and said what she feared from the deepest: "There is nothing you can do now"._

_"You have to live," she sobbed. “Naruto, you must become Hokage, you promised me! And Sasuke-kun ... we have to recover these years, we have to get back together, a family ... you can't go ... I ... "_

_She had seen so many deaths in her young life, but she had never been so terrified, she had never felt so scared in her life. She crouched towards them completely shaken by sobs, the two boys stared at her without knowing what to say, now without the strength to speak._

_"_ I love you _, you cannot abandon me" she shivered with a shiny face._

_Pathetic, pathetic, pathetic, pathetic and weak Sakura._

_The smell of blood made her nauseous, she wanted to vomit and couldn't breathe, her lungs hurt as if they were tearing her heart._

_"Let me come with you," she mumbled illogically._

_They were dying, they were dying, God, why. Why?_

_"No" Naruto's voice vibrated decisively. "Don't say that Sakura-chan."_

_She looked at him with green eyes dissolved in tears._

_"Without you I can't do it" she admitted shamelessly, it seemed to her that someone was tearing the sky from her._

_They were dying before her eyes and she couldn't do anything._

_Pathetic Sakura._

_“Please, Sakura-chan,” Naruto continued, “promise me you'll live and protect the Village for us too. Promise me that you will help Kakashi do the Hokage, that you will not stop smiling and that you will stay strong. Promise me you'll take care of everyone. That you will take care of Hinata-chan ”._

_But who will take care of Sakura?_

_"Don't die, don't die," she pleaded. “Don't die”._

_Sakura tried again to activate the chakra, but it was like trying to grab the wind, they were completely broken._

_"Sakura ..." Sasuke's voice again. "_ Thanks _"._

_She blinked her eyes as she perceived the last synchronous beat of the two hearts._

_Then silence._

_Sakura, thank you._

_No not yet. Not yet. Why did it always have to end like this?_

_“NARUTO! SASUKE! " she screamed, scratching her throat, but both of them could no longer hear her._

_Pathetic._

_Weak._

_Stupid._

"Sakura!"

Kakashi's voice roused her from that horrible memory.

Sakura blinked, feeling a tear roll down her lashes. She put her hand to her face to rub her eyes.

"I'm sorry, I didn't want to remind you ..."

"It's okay, Kakashi-sensei" she reassured him even if, perhaps, it wasn't exactly true. Her heart ached, as if she still felt emptiness. "I'm strong enough".

Kakashi got up from his chair and wrapped her in a comforting and warm embrace.

"I know. You are the strongest woman I have ever known. But don't do anything that will hurt you, please ”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me make this clear. Sakura is the strongest woman, I will fight everyone who will say she's weak ewe


End file.
